September 6 Report on North Iraq – Forced Marriages, Conversions and Looting

The Hammurabi Human Rights Organization* has issued its latest report, dated September 6, 2014, on the situation in North Iraq.

• In Mosul there has been a sharp increase in the number of persons detained at the Badush prison in the last ten days, resulting from increased arrests of people resisting ISIS. Arrests are made by ISIS mostly in night raids.

• Looting and pillaging continue in the Nineveh Plain, and especially in the cities of Baghdede and Tel Kepe. Trucks roam the neighborhoods and select houses to be raided and transport the furniture to unknown locations. Organized gangs form surrounding villages conduct the looting under the supervision of ISIS.
• ISIS are holding a number of Yazidi women in one of the villages near Tal Afar in a prison built for this purpose. The conditions are extremely harsh. The women are given one Loaf of bread per day and are forced to use contaminated water for drinking. The women are also being forced to marry ISIS members.
• 25 Christians who were being held by ISIS in the Sayeda Zaineb mosque in Sinjar were transferred two days ago to nearby homes west of the mosque. ISIS gunmen forced two other Christians to convert to Islam and they are being held in a house separate from the other detained Christians.
• Two Christian families, residence of Baghdede, who were detained by ISIS in Mosul were released. It is not known why ISIS released these two families.
• Hundreds of families are still being held in the Yazidi village of Kasir Mihrab in the Tel Afar District. ISIS are preparing to transfer these families to an unknown location.
•  ISIS have forced Yazidi girls to marry in the village of Kojo in the Sinjar District and are planning to conduct a collective wedding in the next few days.

Source: OCP; Assyrian International News Agency